The Treaty of Teschen Ends the War of the Bavarian Succession (1779)
On May 13, 1779, diplomats meeting at the Congress of Teschen brought an end to the War of the Bavarian Succession, a conflict fought more by starvation and dysentery than by cannon fire. The peace, mediated by Russia and France, awarded Austria the small but strategically useful Innviertel region while blocking the Habsburgs' broader ambitions in Bavaria. The war's odd nature earned it derisive nicknames like the 'Potato War' in Prussia and Saxony and the 'Plum Fuss' in Austria.
A Succession Crisis Sparks Conflict
The trouble began on December 30, 1777, when Elector Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria died without a direct heir, extinguishing the Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach. Austria's Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, co-ruler with his mother Maria Theresa, saw an opportunity to expand Habsburg territory into the German heartland. He quickly negotiated a secret agreement with the new elector, Charles Theodore of Palatinate-Sulzbach, to acquire roughly a third of Bavaria, including Lower Bavaria and the Innviertel. Austrian troops moved into these territories in January 1778, presenting Europe with a fait accompli. This aggressive land grab alarmed Prussia's King Frederick the Great, who had spent decades fighting to check Austrian power and had no intention of allowing the Habsburgs to upset the delicate balance within the Holy Roman Empire. Frederick allied with Saxony, whose elector had his own dynastic claims to Bavarian lands through marriage, and the two powers demanded Austria withdraw. When Joseph II refused to abandon his gains, both sides mobilized enormous armies—Prussia and Saxony fielding around 160,000 troops, Austria roughly 190,000—setting the stage for a major European war over a relatively minor succession dispute.
Did You Know?
Despite mobilizing nearly 350,000 combined troops between Austria, Prussia, and Saxony, the War of the Bavarian Succession saw so little actual combat that soldiers spent much of their time digging up potato fields for food, giving the entire war its lasting nickname—the Kartoffelkrieg, or 'Potato War.'
The 'Potato War': Armies Without Battles
Despite the massive troop numbers assembled along the Bohemian frontier in the summer of 1778, the war produced almost no significant combat. Frederick the Great and Joseph II both hesitated to commit to a large-scale engagement, wary of the costs and uncertain outcomes of open warfare. Instead, the opposing armies spent months maneuvering, skirmishing minimally, and foraging the countryside for food. Soldiers dug up potato fields to survive, giving the conflict its enduring Prussian and Saxon nickname, the Kartoffelkrieg, or 'Potato War.' In Habsburg lands, troops instead scavenged plum orchards, inspiring the Austrian term Zwetschgenrummel, roughly 'the plum affair' or 'plum fuss.' The real enemy proved to be disease and deprivation rather than enemy soldiers. Dysentery, typhus, and starvation swept through the crowded camps, killing thousands on both sides—far more than died from actual fighting. Maria Theresa, horrified by the toll and skeptical of her son's ambitions from the start, pushed hard behind the scenes for a negotiated settlement. By the winter of 1778 into 1779, both exhausted sides recognized that continuing the standoff offered little strategic benefit and mounting human cost, opening the door to diplomatic resolution.
The Congress of Teschen and Lasting Settlement
Negotiations convened in the Silesian town of Teschen (now Cieszyn, on the Polish-Czech border), with Russia's Empress Catherine the Great and France's King Louis XVI serving as mediators between the exhausted combatants. Catherine's involvement carried particular weight, as she signaled willingness to back Prussia militarily if Austria refused reasonable terms, giving Frederick the Great crucial diplomatic leverage. After weeks of negotiation, representatives signed the Treaty of Teschen on May 13, 1779, formally ending the war. Under its terms, Austria relinquished most of its claims to Bavarian territory but retained the Innviertel, a wedge of land along the Inn River that would remain part of Austria into the modern era. Saxony received a financial payment of six million florins to settle its own dynastic claims, while Prussia gained recognition of its rights to eventually inherit the small principalities of Ansbach and Bayreuth. The treaty also reaffirmed the constitutional principles of the Holy Roman Empire, limiting future attempts by any single power to dominate through territorial consolidation. Though largely bloodless in battle, the war's true cost fell heavily in human lives lost to disease, and the settlement at Teschen demonstrated how European great-power diplomacy, backed by the threat of Russian intervention, could resolve dynastic disputes without resorting to prolonged, devastating warfare.